I have had a DT 25 for about 18 months after many years of live Flextone 2 and Flextone 3 plus Floorboard "enjoyment". I changed to the DT25 not just because of the way it sounds but also for the simplicity to get away from the complexity and constant tweaking habit that I acquired over the years. I have spent the last 18 months in tone heaven with my guitar plugged straight into the DT25. Plug in and play, very simple and rewarding. For this reason I didn't get and don't want to get a Pod HD. I do access the other amp models using DT Customizer occasionally but generally prefer to play rather than tweak these days!

However I thought I would try using a couple of pedals to add to the range of sounds I can get on the fly without having to bother with loads of pre-sets. So I bought a BOSS OS2 (Overdrive Distortion) and a TC Electronics Flashback (Delay). I have put the Flashback in the effects loop and I'm very happy with the tone (pretty much neutral) and range of delays it can produce. A brilliant piece of kit.

I'm having a bit more trouble with the overdrive/distortion and this is where I would like some opinions. It is hard to describe the results, but on clean channels it sounds quite thin and harsh and on the distorted models it doesn't seem to do much apart from add some faint overtones/harmonics. I have tried loads of different settings to dial this out and I realise that tone is highly subjective. This could be just the way these type of effects sound (haven’t needed one before) and I'm sure the pedal itself is very good, for what it offers so this is not about the OS2, my question are:

Is it worth using an overdrive/distortion pedal at all with the DT amps since it’s possible to get some great overdriven/distorted tones from the built in models?

Do overdrive/distortion pedals work OK with digitally modelled pre-amps?

Has anyone on the forum found an Overdrive/Distortion solution that they use effectively with the DT Amps? If so what do you use?

I realise the an overdrive/distortion pedal should go in front of the amp, but has anyone tried one in the loop and if so what are the advantages/disadvantages?

I've used pedals with my DT-25 ever since I've had it. It reacts pretty much like I'd expect it to. I don't think you'd have good results putting an OD or distortion in the loop. As far as what I've found that works, I guess I haven't had any issues with any of my pedals not working. Currently, I'm using the Wampler Dual Fusion as my main OD pedal, but here's a list of other pedals I have on my board:

Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh

Mooer Green Mile (a Tubescreamer clone)

Mooer Blues Crab (Marshall Bluesbreaker clone)

Fulltone Plimsoul

Mooer Pure Boost (essentially a clone of the Xotic RC Boost, using it as clean boost)

The DT-25 reacts in a similar way to my other amps, so I'm not sure why you're having problem. Maybe it is that particular OD pedal that you simply don't like?

0

"It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines"

Thanks for your reply. What you are saying makes perfect sense. I suppose that not having used pedal before I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I suspect that it is the particular OD pedal that I'm not getting on with to get that "sound in my head". Interestingly when I had the Flextone 3 I treid that with an Ibanez Tubescreamer and didn't feel that added much that I couldn't get by selecting another amp model or tweaking the gain. Since i had 36 presets on the Floorboard, that always seemed a better solution at the time.